DM Monitoring
New Delhi: A leading Canadian daily, The Globe and Mail has reported that two men who have allegedly killed a US-Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a separatist Sikh leader, are likely to be arrested soon.
In developments that are set to increase troubles being faced by the Indian government over accusations of ‘transnational repression’ and the targeting of US and Canadian citizens on their soil, reports that “three sources told The Globe and Mail that the suspected killers never left Canada after Mr. Nijjar’s slaying and have been under police surveillance for months. Two of the sources said the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) are expected to make arrests and lay charges in the coming weeks.”
The charges and alleged links to “the Indian government” are likely to be made public.
The sources have told the newspaper that “police will explain the alleged assassins’ involvement and that of the Indian government when charges are laid against the two men. The Globe is not identifying the sources because they were not authorised to discuss national-security and police matters.”
It is not known, adds the paper whether arrests of any other “suspected accomplices in the slaying” are expected. The Washington Post has reported, citing “video footage and witness accounts, that at least six men and two vehicles were involved in the killing of Nijjar.”\
India and Canada’s diplomatic ties took a hit when Justin Trudeau first made accusations about India’s involvement on September 18 in the Canadian parliament in the killing of Nijjar earlier this year. India had strongly denied his charges then. But after a damning criminal indictment by the United States was unsealed (made public), alleging that Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national, arrested and detained in the Czech Republic in June, “allegedly arranged the murder for hire of the U.S.-based Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, general counsel for the New York-based Sikhs for Justice,” India had said it will cooperate in the investigation and stopped denying charges directly as it had done earlier.
Earlier, When Nikhil Gupta arrived at Václav Havel Airport in Prague on a Friday in June, it is likely that he did not know that it would kickstart the process of removing the secretive shroud on an investigation that would encompass three countries and be pivotal in the United States’ most explosive charges yet against the Indian government.
It would only be around five months later that US federal prosecutors would release a detailed 15-page indictment that named an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, as the prime accused for hiring a ‘hitman’. Even more startling, the indictment implicated an Indian government official in masterminding the unsuccessful plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, in New York. Pannun is a US citizen.
In a habeas corpus petition submitted to the Supreme Court this week, Nikhil Gupta’s family is urging the Indian government’s active involvement in securing his return. The petition, intriguingly titled ‘Mr X v/s the Union of India’, levels serious allegations against the US and Czech authorities regarding his treatment in detention but also reveals additional details about the investigation by US agencies that have so far not been in the public domain.
